Heavy duty turnbuckles or screw-jack load binders for securing massive loads are well known. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,971,472 and 2,220,288 disclose steam boat ratchet load binders, which have been previously designed to withstand the tensions imposed by the towing of barges or steam boats. However, the ratchet load binders of those patents are not only heavy and therefore difficult to transport from one job to the next, but are also expensive to fabricate due to their massive proportions. Efforts have been made in the past to economize on the weight of such load binders. Accordingly, telescoping designs have been produced in which the axially oriented screw members are made to telescope within one another rather than abutting end-on in their most contracted position. This increases the degree of take-up permitted the device without requiring a commensurate increase in the total length and weight of the load binder. Such telescoping load binders are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 310,767 and Canadian Pat. No. 601,529. A similar telescopic construction may also be found in U.S. Pat. No. 789,071 directed to a lifting jack.
While these measures have accomplished, to a degree, the desirable result of increasing total reach without accompanying increase in total weight, or the equally desirable result of decreasing the total weight without commensurate degree in total take-up, such prior art load binding devices for heavy duty applications were still too massive to be easily handled so that further reductions in weight without a proportional reduction in reach is desirable.